


Bit by bit (then I would be yours)

by Labyrinthinee



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - High School, Christmas Fluff, F/M, JATP Secret Santa, bobby is part of sunset curve, flynn and carrie are girlfriends, the girls are all friends because i say so, this plays in a small town somewhere in the US that gets snow, you pick which one ;)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28260900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Labyrinthinee/pseuds/Labyrinthinee
Summary: Everybody at school knew Luke Patterson. He was the picture-perfect bad boy. Lead singer of his own rock band, unruly hair, charming smile, the hint of a tattoo peeking out underneath his bracelets every now and again, his questionable love for shirts with no sleeves whenever it was warm enough which had gotten him a lot of days spent wearing oversized hoodies from the lost and found.So, developing a crush on Luke Patterson was out of the question, wasn't it?
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 38
Kudos: 251
Collections: jatpdaily secret santa 2020





	Bit by bit (then I would be yours)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whycantwe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whycantwe/gifts).



> I wrote this for Ali as her Secret Santa present. 🎅  
> I really hope you like it and will get a lot of snow this season!  
> You can check out her JATP blog on [tumblr](https://sunset-sweeerve.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> I indulged in an awful lot of Christmas fluff with this one and it's very cheesy, so you've all be warned.  
> There's a little art by myself at the end, too, which has been sitting in my mind for days, waiting to be let out and I'm actually really proud of it!
> 
> Also, a big shout-out to the wonderful EchoCharm for proofreading this🥰
> 
> Have lots and lots of fun reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/) or [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lettering_labyrinth/),  
> Bea x.

#### Bit by bit (then I would be yours)

__

_Si tal vez me harías muy feliz  
Si tal vez me lo podrías decir  
Si tal vez detalle a detalle  
Podrías conquistarme sería tuya_

__

Winter was Julie’s favorite season. It was when snow transformed everything into white and glittering beauty. It meant bundling up in front of the fireplace with your favorite sweater on and a cup of hot chocolate in hand. It was when their house was filled with the smell of cookies, cinnamon and oranges.

Today was no different.

There was a plate of cookies set out on the kitchen counter when her and Luke entered the house after school.

Her parents still were at work, her little brother hanging out at his best friend’s and the house was empty.

Julie was glad. It meant, she and Luke could actually start getting to work on their English project in peace.

Even though he was a year older, making him just shy of eighteen, he had to re-take some classes as he had missed too many of them last year in favor of skipping school to work on his rock career.

Everybody at school knew Luke Patterson. He was the picture-perfect bad boy. Lead singer of his own rock band, unruly hair, charming smile, the hint of a tattoo peeking out underneath his bracelets every now and again, his questionable love for shirts with no sleeves whenever it was warm enough which had gotten him a lot of days spent wearing oversized hoodies from the lost and found. Somehow, he managed to pull them off, though.

Sure, most of those things weren’t that bad. There were a few rumors about drugs and alcohol but Julie wasn’t about to believe them if there was no concrete evidence.

Still, the thing, that bothered her about Luke Patterson the most, was his tendency to not take anything seriously.

Mrs Harrison had gotten him to join the spring musical last year in favor of not giving him detention. Again. She’d said something about positive reinforcement and that maybe he’d discover his love for musical theater.

He hadn’t. Instead, he had rarely shown up for rehearsals and if he had shown up, he had just goofed around on stage, not preparing his lines and steps. Julie had only been an understudy last year, but she knew that all the older kids had been just as fed-up as she had been.

Having to work on this project with him now, was close to torture. Especially because she actually loved Mr Evans and the book they were supposed to do a presentation on, was actually one of her favorites, so it should’ve been easy.

Until Mr Evans had called out Luke’s name as her partner.

They had shared a look in class, both of them grimacing.

Straightening her shoulders, she jutted out her chin. She was not going to let him slack of.

“Oh, cookies!” Luke let his backpack slip off his shoulder, which landed on the tiles with a thud, as he jumped up onto the counter, picking up a cookie and shoving it into his mouth.

Julie watched him, disgust on her face. When a second and third followed the first, her eyes got big. Before he could grab another one, she took the plate away from him.

“Hey,” he protested, a few crumbs spraying through the air.

“Let’s start.” Her voice was a little colder than she had intended, but he was already getting on her nerves.

Placing her own backpack on one of the chairs, Julie took a seat. She pulled out her paperback version of ‘Peter Pan’ and her laptop, opening it.

A quick slap against Luke’s fingers who were slowly making their way towards the cookies again, disrupted her.

“Ugh, fine,” he grumbled, slipping of the counter.

Instead of taking a seat like a normal person, he stood behind her, face hovering next to hers, lips dangerously close to her ear. Julie had to suppress a shiver, when his breath fanned against her neck. Seriously, didn’t he ever learn any adequate social skills?

Trying to get her focus back, she started talking, “Okay, we can start with a quick summary of the book and a short part about Barrie, before we get into stylistic devices, comparisons to other works by him and—”

“What’s the book again?”, interrupted Luke. It was followed by a yawn and Julie was close to whacking him in the face.

“Peter Pan. You got a copy from Mr Evans earlier?” She turned her head to look at him.

For a short moment she was taken aback by how close their faces were. She couldn’t help that her eyes flitted to his lips. It was because he was biting them, furrowing his brows as if to remember Mr Evans ever handing him a book. 

“Oh, right,” he finally breathed out, “but like, can we do that later? The weather’s still good outside and I wanted to play some hockey with the guys today.”

She gaped at him. “No. No, you can’t! This is due in two weeks and I won’t let you ruin my grade!”

A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. “Sweet, then we are on the same page here. You do the work, I stay out of it to save your grade and everybody’s happy!” He clapped his hands on her shoulders. “Thanks, Molina!”

Before she could get another word out, he had grabbed his backpack and was halfway out the front door.

“Screw you, Patterson!”

She wasn’t sure, if she heard him cackle outside, then again, he probably was.

Julie cornered him before first period the next morning. The girls had come over yesterday, helping her prepare a strong statement she could hit him with. Flynn’s first draft had been full of profanities, Carrie’s included too many descriptions of his physique which Flynn had commented with a raised eyebrow, earning herself a quick kiss from the blonde. Kayla had simply written down, ‘Threaten him with bodily harm’.

All preparations were wiped away though, when Luke entered the hallway, laughing at something one of his friends and bandmates must’ve said. He was waving at the cluster of girls by the stairs who fawned over the attention and Julie was fuming by the time he reached his locker.

“Molina,” he greeted her, a smirk on his lips.

“Hey, Julie!” Reggie grinned at her, offering his hand for a fist-bump.

She actually liked Reggie. He was sometimes babysitting Carlos who was absolutely smitten with the older boy. Julie had caught him praying for the teenager to become his real older brother more than once.

Letting her fist wander against his, she turned back to Luke who was rummaging through his locker, obviously looking for something.

“Listen, Patterson.” She crossed her arms. Behind the boys, her friends were all giving her a thumbs-up. Squaring her shoulders, she continued, “I will not do all the work. We are supposed to work together and if you don’t put your two cents in, I’m gonna tell Mrs Lessa.”

He stilled. Reggie’s eyes went wide. Alex and Bobby, the other two members of ‘Sunset Curve’, Luke’s stupid rock band, bumped their elbows together, clearly eager to see Luke’s reaction to the threat.

“Oh, come on, Molina, you’re no snitch, are you?” He gave her his most charming smile.

For a short moment the full force of it overwhelmed her, letting her resolve crumble. She could feel herself get soft on the inside, but then Flynn coughed out a loud ‘asshole’ and she was back in the game.

“Like I said, I won’t let you ruin my grade. Some of us actually care about getting into a good college and don’t plan on ruining their futures with a rock career that’s most certainly not going to go anywhere. So, do the work or else…"

“You wouldn’t dare.” He closed his locker with a loud bang, making her jumped. “Listen, Molina, I won’t let some random chick tell me what to do.”

“Fine, then I guess, Mrs Lessa will give you another round of detention. Or maybe she’ll call your parents and—”

Suddenly, he was in her face, looming over her. “Leave my parents out of it,” he growled and Julie swallowed down the rest of her sentence. Seemed like she had found something, he actually cared about.

“Be at my place tonight and I will.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned around, flipping her hair. There was a spring in her step because she had actually told off Luke freaking Patterson. To say she was proud of herself would’ve been an understatement.

They had just finished dinner when there was a knock at the door. Carlos was the first one out of his seat, opening it. He immediately started talking at Luke, his voice filling the entry way.

A moment later, both boys entered the dining room.

Her brother was just retelling what had happened at school today for the second time that evening. To her surprise, Luke seemed to be listening intently, his entire focus on Carlos. Only after the kid had finished talking, did he look up.

“Hi, Mrs and Mr Molina,” he said and Julie was stunned. So, he did have manners? Who’d have thought.

“Please, call me Rose and that’s Ray. How about you and Julie go upstairs to work on your project? Carlos’ TV hour is coming up and well, it can get loud.” Her mum smiled.

“Oh, sweet, whatcha watching?” Luke asked Carlos and they got into a heated discussion about cartoons while the rest of the Molina family stared at them.

Finally, Julie had enough. “Let’s go.” She grabbed Luke’s arm and tugged him towards the stairs.

He yelled a goodbye to Carlos, stumbling over the first steps and almost taking both of them down. When they reached her room, Julie immediately sat down at the desk, powering up her laptop. She spun around when Luke had been awfully quiet for a long time.

He was busy looking at all the pictures above her dresser.

They mostly showed her and her friends, a few of her family and some of her growing up.

“Hey, that’s the Eats and Beats!” Luke turned around, grinning at her and pointing at a photo in the center. “We sometimes play there!”

“Really, you do?” She decided to fake innocence. There was no way, she was going to tell him that the picture had actually been taken at one of their gigs.

She was not going to tell Luke Patterson that she liked his music. The idiot had enough of an ego as it was.

“Can we start now?”

He smirked. “Always so bossy, Molina.”

To her surprise he did come over to her, sitting down on the edge of her bed and looking at her expectantly.

“Okay, should we divide the separate points of the presentation between us? That way we’ll be done much quicker.”

“Whatever you say.” He nodded, stunning her even more and by the end of their study date, Julie had to admit, that working with Luke wasn’t as bad as she had thought.

After they had divided all the topics between them, they had quietly started to work. Sometimes he’d ask her a question or comment on one of her notes when he read over them because he was taking a break from his. Sure, he wasn’t the calmest person, always moving, playing around with a pen or one of the tussles from her pillows but Julie wasn’t really bothered by it. In the contrary, it was comforting to hear him move behind her while she was working through Barrie’s life.

Shortly after nine she led him back downstairs. He said goodbye to her parents, thanking her mum for the cookies she had brought them earlier.

They had decided to meet up again the day after tomorrow, since he had band rehearsal the next day and Julie was busy with preparing the winter musical. It was a performance of Aladdin and she had finally gotten the lead part.

When Luke stepped out onto the porch, Julie blurted out, “You actually did good work tonight.”

The surprise at her words was written all over his face but then quickly changed into a cheeky smirk. “You’re gonna make me blush, Molina.”

Rolling her eyes, Julie leaned against the doorframe. “I’m trying this positive reinforcement thing, Mrs Harrison talked about.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That didn’t really work last time,” he reminded her.

She shrugged. “Worth another try, don’t you think?”

Luke didn’t answer for a moment, instead biting his lips. Her gaze snapped to them before she forced it back on his eyes. The sly glint in them told her that he had seen her.

Humming, he pulled his hat over his curls. “I’ll see you tomorrow, boss!”

Julie watched him leave and if there was a small smile on her lips, it was because he had finally accepted her as his boss. Not because he looked ridiculously cute with the curls peeking out underneath his orange hat.

The next morning the roads were slippery, ice making them shine in the rising sun. Unfortunately, the parking lot at school wasn’t much better and Julie was holding onto Flynn for dear life.

They had almost made it to the steps leading up towards the main entrance, when somebody called her name behind them.

Julie turned around too quickly, her feet slipping on the ice. Arms flailing through the air, she desperately tried to grab something. Which was apparently Luke’s flannel, because a moment later their faces were inches apart.

“Morning.” Smirking he put her back on her feet, gently. “Didn’t think you’d fall for me that easily.”

The wink made her roll her eyes, but her entire body felt like it was going up in flames.

“Flynn.” Luke tipped his imaginary hat at her.

Her best friend threw an arm around her shoulder. “Patterson.” Her voice was dripping with disdain and Julie never loved her more.

“Yo, Jules!” The rest of Luke’s ragtag rock band caught up with their lead singer, greeting them with various stages of enthusiasm. Reggie was the one grinning the widest. “We’re going to the pond later. It’s still completely frozen over. Wanna come with?”

Luke quickly shushed his friend but it was too late. Julie was already staring him down, eyes boring into his.

“Uh…,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You said, you had band practice.” She really had thought he had started to take this a little more seriously.

“We have!” Luke cried.

Alex leaned forward. “We wanted to go afterwards.”

Julie breathed out. “Oh—”

“Yeah, so, you gonna join?”

If she didn’t know any better, than she’d have said that Luke actually wanted her there. Which was ridiculous. He didn’t want to spent more time with her than necessary, right?

“Sure!”, answered Flynn for her.

Reggie high-fived her friend before the boys dispersed, leaving the two girls by themselves.

“That was…”

“Weird,” finished Julie.

“I was gonna say, nice, but okay.” Flynn shrugged and together they entered the school.

Hanging with the boys that afternoon was fun. Their groups fit surprisingly well together. Carrie and Alex immediately hit it off, discussing the newest Beyonce video while skating. Flynn and Kayla joined Bobby and Luke in a rambunctious race over the lake which ended with a bloody nose and scraped up elbows. Julie and Reggie stayed out of their way, mostly discussing their newest series finds and gaming strategies.

Over the next few days more and more of hers and Luke’s study time was spent just hanging out. Talking to Luke was fun. He had a lot of thoughts about a lot of topics and they ended up more than once standing toe to toe, staring each other down because they disagreed about whatever they had been discussing.

She had quickly become familiar with his eyes, trying to memorize them and the heat behind them, the passion for whatever thing they talked about. It certainly didn’t help the ever-growing butterflies in her stomach which thankfully she was still able to squash down. Because developing a crush on Luke Patterson was out of the question.

It was not a good idea at all. It was the worst idea she had ever had.

Of course, her stupid heart didn’t listen to her and when she caught him singing her favorite song under his breath while highlighting passages in a Wikipedia article they had printed out, Julie knew that she was doomed.

She had a crush on Luke Patterson. It was undeniable. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered against her ribcage, her heart sung in her chest and she was sure that she had heart eyes as she stared at him while he did a rendition of ‘Te quiero tanto, tanto’.

She doubted that he knew what he was singing. It was the intro song to her mum’s favorite telenovela growing up and they had had watched a bunch of episodes when Julie had gotten her wisdom teeth removed last summer.

Julie tried to ignore it; she really did because giving in to her feelings was out of the question.

It didn’t help that Luke was suddenly everywhere. He showed up at her locker between classes, dropping in to ask her random questions, like what she had thought of last nights ‘Bachelorette’ (she didn’t watch it but filed away the information that apparently, he did), how she liked her eggs during Sunday breakfast (fried), if she thought there was life on other planets (very probably) or believed in ghosts (she didn’t, he did very adamantly).

And then, he asked her to come to their show at the ‘Eats and Beats’ on Saturday. Leaning against the lockers next to hers, hands deep in his pockets and biting his lips he awaited her answer.

“Sure,” said her mouth while her brain was still freaking out.

“Great! We go on at nine!”

They always did.

“I know.”

He blinked and Julie almost slapped her hand over her mouth. She shouldn’t know this.

A smirk appeared on his lips and he leaned closer. “You know?” His voice was smooth and quiet, the words only meant for her ears.

“Yeah, uh, Carrie mentioned something,” she lied quickly but Luke was still grinning down at her.

His head came even closer, stopping next to her ear and Julie wasn’t sure if his lips didn’t actually touch her skin as he whispered, “You are a horrible liar, Molina.”

Her knees almost gave out when he leaned back, locking eyes with her. She was sure that her feelings were written all over her face, it burnt hot enough for sure.

Winking at her, he turned around, following the stream of students to their classes.

She watched him go, trying to regulate her breathing and beating heart. When she finally felt calm enough to head to her next class, she was already five minutes late, the hallway completely deserted.

Crushing on Luke Patterson was the worst.

They all met at her place on Saturday, wanting to get ready together.

Her mum made enough tortillas to feed an army and Julie’s friends were filling the dining room with chatter and laughter, almost drowning out Carlos who was excited that he finally got new people to share his hockey stories with.

After dinner, they disappeared into Julie’s room, picking out their outfits for the night. Her mum’s old stage clothes were handed around the room, everybody picking one item to spike up the outfits they had brought.

Julie chose the bedazzled leather jacket, styling it with a ‘Sunset Curve’ shirt, Reggie had presented her with almost a year ago when they had printed the first batch. She had never worn it before.

Not sure if it wasn’t a little too obvious, she viewed herself in the mirror, but Flynn just raised her eyebrows and whistled, “Damn, you look hot.”

Julie’s mum drove them to the bar. Since she knew the owner from her days as the lead singer of ‘Rose and the Petal Pushers’, she usually got the girls in with her, keeping an eye on them during the night.

It was an arrangement Julie could live with very well. Especially, because her mum was usually busy chatting with Flor, her band’s old bassist who was tending the bar most nights.

Tonight wasn’t any different and the place was already packed with everybody who liked to listen to good live music. There weren’t a lot of clubs in their area which were as known as this one.

That ‘Sunset Curve’ was playing here every other weekend said enough about how talented they were, even if Julie would never tell Luke that.

The band performing before them was new, jazzing it up with an incredible big band. Their lead singer was amazing, too, sitting on top of the piano and obviously having the time of his life.

Her mum organized them their usual table and disappeared in the sea of people towards the bar.

“This is so exciting!”, squealed Kayla, clapping her hands and suddenly waving towards the stage.

Julie followed her eyeline and met Luke’s. A grin was forming on his lips as he recognized them. He saluted and she forced herself to just nod instead of waving like a crazy person.

“Everybody, give it up for Caleb Covington and his band!”

They clapped politely along with the crowd, before the murmurs rose as the stage was being cleared for the guys.

Carrie told them about the new rom com she wanted to see as soon as it came out while they waited. Julie was barely listening, too busy watching the band do a quick soundcheck. Her eyes kept wandering to Luke and his damn arms in those cutoffs. It was getting ridiculously hot in here, wasn’t it? 

‘Sunset Curve’ didn’t really need an introduction anymore. Alex counted them in and then they started with ‘Now or Never’.

The place was going wild and Julie and her friends were no exception. She was singing and jumping along with everybody.

It was during ‘Finally Free’ which was one of Julie’s favorites, when Luke’s eyes met hers over the crowd. He caught her singing, a blinding smile splitting his face during Alex’ solo and her heart jumped into her throat.

Running a hand through his hair, Luke didn’t take his eyes off her during the final chorus, ending the song with a wink in her direction, biting his lips.

Julie joined her friends’ hoots a little belated, blushing furiously when Luke laughed at her and Flynn bumped her elbow against her ribs, obviously having witnessed the entire interaction.

“Seems like your crush isn’t as one-sided as you thought,” she mumbled into Julie’s ear.

After their set, the boys hurried with clearing the stage to make their way over to them. They were pumped with adrenalin, sweating and jumping on each other’s backs. 

Reggie quickly dragged her into a hug, before high-fiving Flynn. “You came!”, he cheered.

“It was awesome!” Kayla smiled up at the bassist and he blushed so furiously, immediately drifting towards her friend, that Julie couldn’t help the laugh escaping her.

“Thanks for coming.”

Luke’s quiet voice made her jump. He had suddenly gotten a lot closer, filling Reggie’s vacant spot beside her.

“You weren’t as bad as I thought.” She was a little surprised at the words, not really knowing where the bravery had come from. Maybe it was her mum’s old leather jacket.

“Says the girl who can sing along to all our songs. Didn’t know you were a fan, to be honest.” He leaned even closer and Julie’s eyes dropped to his lips. “Plus, I really like your shirt.”

“It was a gift, from Reggie,” she felt the need to clarify that right away.

Luke smirked. “Don’t care. It looks good.”

Julie could’ve sworn that his eyes wandered to her lips for a moment as well, before he straightened himself and talked to Bobby about changing the bridge in one of their songs.

He didn’t leave her side through-out the night, though and by the time her mum drove them home shortly before midnight, Julie was quite certain, that Flynn had been right.

Her crush wasn’t a one-sided thing.

Knowing that Luke might actually have feelings for her as well, didn’t help at all.

Suddenly, she couldn’t seem to get him alone. Her or his friends were always around. To top it, they had done their presentation in English and afterwards they didn’t really have any reason to hang out anymore.

So, Julie was moping mostly. Moping and pining, hoping that she’d somehow get Luke alone.

The upcoming performance of the winter musical distracted her a little bit, keeping her mind busy most days. Its premiere went smoothly, her friends congratulating her afterwards and maybe the hug Luke gave her lasted a tad too long to be completely friendly but nobody commented on it.

Flynn just smiled at her knowingly, resting her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder while listening to Reggie reenacting his favorite scenes.

Today had been the last day of school, Christmas break relieving them of their duties as a students for the next weeks but Julie wasn’t really in the mood. With school out, the chances to get Luke alone dropped to something too close to zero.

After getting home, Julie spent the rest of the day in her room, playing around on her piano, trying to find a melody that fit her current mood.

Her mum finally dragged her out, forcing her to help with baking Christmas cookies. Carlos already looked like he had showered in flour, the white powder sticking to his entire body.

The kitchen didn’t look much better and Julie’s mood quickly lifted, as they all danced around the kitchen, singing Spanish Christmas songs and decorating the cookies with glitter, too much sugar and melted chocolate.

By the time, they were done, their dad had come home, stealing the first of the batch and hiding from the wrath of his wife in the living room. The ensuing pillow fight lasted half an hour with Carlos picking their mum’s side and Julie on her dad’s.

In the end they all collapsed on the couch, breathing heavily and laughing. One last pillow landed on her dad’s stomach before they turned on the TV, watching ‘Home Alone’ for the hundredth time because it was Carlos’ favorite.

She had planned to sleep in the next day, enjoying the first morning off school, when something tapping against her window woke her up.

At first, she thought, she had imagined it, keeping her eyes closed but then three quick taps followed. It was still dark outside, the moon illuminating her room and whatever was out there was consistent.

Julie grabbed her phone from the night stand, wanting to turn on the flashlight. When she unlocked it, though, she saw that she had five missed calls from Luke and the last text message he had sent read, _I’m here!_

Frowning, because that didn’t sound ominous at all, she got out of bed, hurrying to the window.

Underneath it stood Luke, grinning up at her, his left hand filled with pebbles from their neighbor’s yard and waving like an idiot.

Julie opened her window. “What are you doing here?”, she hissed, crossing her arms in front of her chest to shield herself against the cold wind coming into her room.

Luke shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“So, you decided I shouldn’t either?” She asked incredulously, biting her lips. It was freezing.

Sheepishly, he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck, before continuing, “I thought, we could go ice-skating. It’s… it’s actually pretty nice there during the night, also, we’d have the pond to ourselves…”

Suddenly, the cold didn’t really bother her anymore. A warmth settled in her stomach, awakening the butterflies who tiredly fluttered, growing more alive with every passing heartbeat.

Because down there, below her window was Luke Patterson asking her to spend time alone with him.

Slowly his grin froze and Julie realized that he was waiting for her reply.

“Yeah, yes, I’ll just get changed,” she called out quickly.

His answering smile was wide enough to let Julie’s butterflies start racing each other. She shut the window, before having a five-seconds dance party.

Ten minutes later she opened the front door, stepping out into the night. Luke was leaning against the bannister leading up their porch, eyes lighting up when they met hers.

“Hey,” he breathed out.

“Hi.” Julie closed the door behind herself carefully. She walked to him, hiding her hands in the big oversized sweater she was wearing. Its color matched her baby blue headband and it was the warmest she had. Quickly shrugging on her jacket, she zipped it up.

“Ready?” Luke asked.

Nodding, she followed him towards his car, a beat-up Toyota that grumbled terribly when Luke started it.

The drive to the pond was quiet. Luke’s music selection filled the car with low rock songs and Julie was bobbing her head along to them, mouthing the words to those she knew.

Like Luke had promised, the pond looked very pretty in the dark. The icy surface reflected the moon, sparkling in its light and the surrounding trees moved in the soft winter wind, their branches rustling against each other.

“It’s beautiful”, Julie breathed out.

He hummed in response, before leading her towards a small bench where they changed into their skates.

Silence settled over them once more as they made their way onto the ice. Quietly, they skated around, always staying close to each other, elbows, hands, shoulders brushing against each other but neither of them daring to close the gap completely.

After their third lap, Julie finally found the courage to open her mouth. “We baked some Christmas cookies today,” she told him.

“Do I get to taste them?” He asked, his fingers touching hers shortly.

Julie slowed down a little, turning around, so she skated backwards and looked at him. “What do I get in return?”

Luke was just as surprised by her boldness as she was, if his growing eyes were anything to go by. Then his signature grin showed up. “What do you want for them?” He countered her question.

She raised an eyebrow, pondering on her response, letting him stew a little. 

Finally, Julie stopped skating. He followed suit, coming to a halt in front of her. They were in the middle of the pond, the moon illuminating them and she couldn’t look anywhere but his eyes.

“You know, I’d give them to you for free,” she whispered.

He laughed huskily, not breaking eye contact and coming even closer. “Jules…”

The way he said her name made her butterflies freeze up, staring at him like a deer in the headlights.

His head leaned in, eyes closed and suddenly Julie chickened out. “First at the bench wins!”

She sprinted away, forcing her wild heart to calm down while her head yelled at her to turn around and ask him to lean in once more, so she could react properly this time.

To her surprise, she heard his laugh behind her and a moment later he caught up with her. His hands grabbed her waist and with one swift movement he pulled her into his chest, slowing them both down effectively.

“You are unbelievable, Molina,” he mumbled, his breath mingling with hers.

“I—”

“Nope, no talking from you anymore.” He put his hand into his jacket’s pocket, pulling out a messily wrapped gift. “Merry Christmas, Julie.”

“Oh,” she breathed out, her fingers shaking as she took the package from him. Taking off her gloves, she carefully ripped off the paper.

A bracelet landed in the palm of her hand. It was made out of a braided orange leather band, the same color as Luke’s favorite beanie and in the middle sat three painted beads. On the left was a small guitar, on the right a musical note and the one between them showed a flower.

Julie gasped.

“It’s supposed to be a dahlia,” explained Luke.

“How’d you know—?”

He laughed. “I’m a very observant person.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “And your friends might’ve helped. Kayla painted the beads.”

If Julie had thought her butterflies had gone crazy before it was nothing compared to now.

Rushing forward, her lips met his.

She landed back on her feet just as quickly, eyes wide as she awaited Luke’s reaction.

He seemed stunned for a moment, blinking at her. Chuckling, his hand moved towards her cheek, gently touching it. “You have a thing for catching me off-guard, huh?”, he mumbled, before leaning in once more.

The second kiss was very different. Their lips fit perfectly together, moving delicately against each other and her fingers started playing with the locks peeking out of Luke’s hat.

“Merry Christmas, Luke,” she whispered when they parted.

His eyes were still closed, pressing another quick peck onto her lips. “Merry Christmas, Jules,” he mumbled, hugging her close.

She rested her head against his chest, listening to his heart which was beating just as wildly as hers. Closing her eyes, she started humming under her breath.

The sun was already coming up behind the trees, slowly waking up the world around them and as they got back to the bench, hands intertwined, Julie still couldn’t fully believe it.

Pulling out her phone before they left the pond, she tugged Luke in for a picture. He blew a raspberry against her neck, making her laugh and Julie almost dropped her phone.

On the way back to her house, she was in charge of the music. She selected ‘Te quiero tanto, tanto’, singing along with it quietly. Luke was joining her at the first verse, still stumbling through a few of the words but doing his best.

Julie’s heart soared and she thought about how scaringly true the words were.

_Te quiero tanto, tanto  
Cada día un poco más  
Te quiero tanto, tanto  
Para mi no hay nada igual, no lo hay_


End file.
